My bones are not symmetrical. Because my facial bones are misaligned, the height of my jaw is different on the left and right sides. This discrepancy in jaw height occurred because my face grew while tilted to one side. The bones on the right side overdeveloped and elongated, while those on the left became shorter. To compensate for this, even when I am perfectly still, my head naturally tilts to the right. In order to maintain equilibrium, my head cannot remain perfectly centered.
As my head tilts, it creates a corresponding tension in my neck. When tension builds in the neck, the muscles stiffen, and applying pressure to them during a massage causes pain. It is the same as any other part of the body. Once tension is maintained for a long period, that state becomes the new point of equilibrium. As the neck muscles stiffen, the head grows larger to offset that asymmetry. Consequently, I have a relatively larger head compared to the rest of my family. While everyone else in my family is short in stature but possesses much smaller heads, I am the only one with a larger head, a trait that stems entirely from this asymmetry.
The issues arising from this facial asymmetry do not end with the head. It impacts the symmetry of my shoulders and causes my spine to curve laterally. Ultimately, it misaligns my pelvis, which in turn affects the length of my legs. To this day, my left leg is significantly longer than my right. If I stand still or go about my daily activities without supportive cushions or shoes, pain inevitably flares up only in my left sole. It is a pain born from the excessive force exerted on one side because that leg is longer.
As a result, every morning, an uncomfortable, heavy stiffness—the kind of discomfort a patient with plantar fasciitis might experience—spreads through my foot. Isn't it profoundly ironic that this entire tragedy stems merely from bones being slightly out of alignment? To correct this, I attended a dental clinic for over seven years, underwent surgeries, and did everything humanly possible. Yet, having been given this body, I will likely face a similar predicament until the day I die.
To manage this, I must pay meticulous attention to my posture and stretching routines. I have to consciously readjust my posture and engage in daily activities that realign my displaced pelvis back to normal. This stretching is not something done casually once or twice; it requires a significant investment of time, drains my energy, and consumes my willpower just to attain a point of balance that others never have to strive for in their entire lives.
Nothing in this world is fair. A person who appears to others to be living an effortless life may actually be spending time every single day on tasks that most people never even attempt, simply to reach that baseline.
For us, turning on a faucet yields drinkable water anywhere, but for someone else, obtaining water requires walking for more than two hours under a scorching sun. It may seem as though human time flows at the exact same pace for everyone, but it does not flow equally at all, and the time we must pay each day like a tax varies wildly. We must abandon the illusion that because people appear similar, they carry a similar weight of life. A person who seems completely incompetent might actually be enduring a life several times heavier and more grueling than our own, while those who constantly whine and complain about how hard things are might, in reality, be crying out under a weight as light as a feather.